Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1887-07-15
that something more than a capfuI

brought the junk slowly along
while we stood still. The mate
whispered his orders, and each of
us took a musket and advanced to
the starboard rail. We had orders
not to fire until they were near
enough to make every bullet count.
On their side we could see from
thirty to thirty.fve half naked and
Misunderstanding fellows, with cut.
lasses in hand ready for boarding.
Not a shout was raised nor a loud
word uttered on either side. They
fOated down to us as silently as
death, and in grim despair we wait
ed their coming. They meant to
lay US aboard on the starboard bow,
and had men ready with graphing
irons. The junk was not more than
pistol shot away when we fred our
volley, and three of the pirates were
toppled over; then the others be-
gan to yell and brandIsh their naked
blades, but we had neither eyes nor
ears for them. Our mate was shout
ing;
"Load, boys, aud give it to them
again, and then stand by with the
cutlasses.'
ave got in another volley, kill
ing two moro and woundlng one or
two, and then the Junk struck us,
the grapnels were thrown, and with
trightful yells the pirates boarded
US. We cut down the first two or
three, but they dropped over our
rail so fast that We retreated of in
a body and presently the whole
pack of them we're on our decks
A few had pistols, but the majority
had only Japanese cutlasses. We
rallied at the mainmast, and for
two OF three minutes there was
hard lighting, during which one of
our men was shot dead, and anoth-
er received bad wound from a cut
lass. We should have been forced
back or exterminated right there in
two or three minutes more bat for
an unexpected diversion. Our cap
tain had been aroused, broken his
way out, and he suddenly appeared
behind US armed with large Amer
lean bowie knife, which no one
knew he possessed. The only gar
ment he had on was HIS shirt. His
hair was on end, his eyes blazing
fire, and there was no doubt of his
being dead crazy. He uttered a
terrific yell as he came to our res
cue, and he forced his way past us
and attacked the pirates single
handed. saw him kill two while
you could count ten, and the wells
he uttered were alone enough to
scare a man out of his boots. The
pirates raised cries of alarm and re-
treated before him, and the way we
cut 'em up was awful. Such as
could get there got aboard the junk
as fast as possible, and, while two
of us were casting off the grapnels,
captain broke away from the mate
and jumped aboard the junk, just
as a strong puff of wind hit and
separated the two crafts. We had
to stand by our sails, for the breeze
had come at a gallop but we were
not over, 800 feet from the Junk,
which was broaching to, when there
was a dull explosion, and the air
was filed with a thousand frag-
ments OF the piratical craft. A
head and an arm we're blown aboard
Of us, as also pieces of boards and
timbers.
GAS soon as we could get the
brig under control we made a
couple of tacks to fetch the spot of
the explosion, but the only vestige
of her fate consisted of a few shat
tered planks and a mast. There
was no one to save and not a corpse
in sight. We certainly killed five
before being laid aboard. On our
own decks we're eight more, max
ing a total of thirteen out of about
thirty.five. All Others persisted in
the explosion, and perhaps it was
better that our captain died that
way. Our loss, including him, was
only two, and the three wounded